---
title: "Datasheet for datasets"
description: "Documentation that accompanies a dataset with its motivation, composition, collection process, preprocessing, uses, distribution and maintenance, as proposed by Gebru and colleagues; the…"
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/datasheet-for-datasets
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-24
---

# Datasheet for datasets

Documentation that accompanies a dataset with its motivation, composition, collection process, preprocessing, uses, distribution and maintenance, as proposed by Gebru and colleagues [1]; the human-readable companion to the dataset admission record and the data card.

- Developed in: [ch. 14, Model cards, system cards and datasheets](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-development#model-cards-system-cards-and-datasheets)
- Chapters: [ch. 14, Development](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-development)
- Contrast with: [Data card](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/data-card)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-datasheet-for-datasets

## Sources

[1] Datasheets for Datasets (Gebru et al.; arXiv 1803.09010). arXiv. 2018-03-23. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09010 (verified: primary)